We have been appalled by recent news stories regarding nonprofits and their operations within the United States. One of the news stories can be found here:
In light of these revelations, and considering that we are a nonprofit just a few miles from the Mexico border, we wanted to take this opportunity to communicate the reality of our nonprofit and how we operate. The first point is simply this: Warrior Healing Center receives ZERO federal dollars, grants, or appropriated funding. None of the points you'll see in the news applies to our organization.
In fact, we intentionally don't pursue federal grants because they often come with strings attached. For example, some people turned us on to a big VA grant worth up to $750,000 in federal funding. It sounded ideal, as the grant was worded exactly as if it was written for our organization. On closer inspection, however, the VA grant would require our organization to administer VA mental health questionnaires to every veteran who entered our facility. This questionnaire was very much like what you get at a VA doctor's appointment: basically are you depressed or are you planning to hurt yourself. Even worse, if a veteran answered these questions in a way that resulted in a certain "positive" score, the grant required our organization to immediately send the veteran to a VA facility, and required us to report the veteran to the VA. We in no way share information about veterans with the VA or the government, so this was a complete show-stopper for us. We did not apply for the grant and said "No thanks" to this line of funding. We remain unaffiliated and disconnected from the VA or any other government organization.
There are other examples, but the bottom line is that we don't do anything with funding that requires us to share any kind of information, personal or general, with any government agency. Veterans can visit WHC with complete anonymity and any information they share with us is treated as sacred, unless the veteran asks us to share something for their benefit. This is part of our ethos and our promise to those who trust us by coming to us for assistance or any of the activities at WHC.
Which begs the question, how is WHC funded then? We are happy to talk about that. There are many misunderstandings among veterans in our community regarding this. Some think that we are the "Wounded Warriors Center", as in, affiliated with the nonprofit Wounded Warriors organization. We are not. In fact, we are not affiliated with any higher organization outside of Sierra Vista, AZ. We do no have any "higher" organization that funds us, and any organization you see on TV or social media isn't us unless it specifically says "Warrior Healing Center".
So who are we and where do we get our financial support? We are 100% grass-roots, volunteer staffed and managed, and 100% dedicated to the veteran families of Cochise County. This means that no one on our WHC team gets paid a salary, from the director across the org chart to the front desk volunteers. Our board of directors doesn't get paid, either. The founders don't receive any funds. In fact, our volunteers and board have donated far more dollars than they will ever receive. We think that our volunteer-only model is a secret to our success, as everyone working for WHC is doing it because they genuinely care about veteran families. It also helps us be available to veterans in crisis during times of high crisis frequency, weekends and holidays. In our experience, veteran crises don't happen during "business hours". We have to be ready when all other agencies are closed. That makes a huge difference.
WHC is funded entirely by community donations and small grants (that don't have strings). That can be tricky as we do need substantial amounts of money to stay open and provide for veterans in need, but we've managed to do just that for six years now. This means that 100% of every dollar donated goes to support local veterans. We only budget our expenditures for the facility, utilities, veteran support operations, and veteran activities at the Center. Our donors can be confident that we're spending every dollar on community veteran families' needs, and to ensure that we are available when veteran families need us most. It is community volunteers coordinating community resources on community missions to help community veteran families. We don't do what we do for the money, we do what we do because it is the right thing for those who sacrificed so much for the freedom and safety we enjoy.
We like to think this is a good role model for other communities. We are remarkably inexpensive. In total, it requires only about $6,000 a month to cover the Center's overhead expenses and to provide for veteran support operations. By keeping the Center low-cost and all-volunteer, we are able to stay devoted to listening to our veteran families regarding their needs and to stay flexible in doing what's required to help meet those needs. Our community donation program, 22 to end 22, is our "ask" to the community. We ask that people who care about our veterans here basically "buy a cup of coffee" a week for a veteran, and these days, that comes to about $22 a month. That's a nice number, as we are constantly talking about ending veteran suicide, and that problem has famously become associated with the 22 veterans a day statistic. The reality is that this number is likely far more than 22 a day in the U.S. We keep a close eye on the numbers, but what matters is what we can do for our veterans to help them through a crisis.
That is the bottom line. No one gets a salary, no one is making any money, and everything we have and do is devoted to veteran families. We rely on our community donors to keep this going, and ultimately, we give all credit to God for making the Center open and available for all these years. There's no doubt that a higher power is at work, and we are so grateful to be part of the grand plan unfolding at WHC. We believe that authentic goodness is happening at WHC, and we remain infinitely thankful for all we've seen. We simply can't thank our donors, our volunteers, and our leaders enough. This community is simply the best for supporting this grand experience designed to help the people who deserve it most: our veteran families. Thank you!